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John Byrom
| birth_place = Manchester, England | death_date = September | death_place = Manchester, England | occupation = Poet, inventor of shorthand system | nationality = English | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = The King's School, Chester Merchant Taylors' School, London Trinity College, Cambridge | alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = Anglican hymn Christians Awake, salute the happy morn Poem My spirit longeth for Thee Coined the phrase Tweedledum and Tweedledee | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | website = | portaldisp = }} John Byrom or John Byrom of Kersal or John Byrom of Manchester FRS (29 February 1692 - 26 September 1763) was an English poet and hymnist, and the inventor of a revolutionary system of shorthand.John Byrom, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Web, Feb. 23, 2016. Life Youth Byrom was descended from an old genteel Lancashire family. A Ralph Byrom came to Manchester from Lowton in 1485, and became a prosperous wool merchant. His son Adam acquired property in Salford, Darcy Lever, Bolton, and Ardwick (though his wealth did not prevent his mentally ill daughter from being accused of witchcraft). Edward Byrom helped to foil a Royalist plot to seize Manchester in 1642. Byrom was born at what is now The Old Wellington Inn (part of the Old Shambles), Manchester. (The property was then used as an office for market tolls, with accommodation on the upper floors.) However, some sources claim that he was born at Kersal Cell in Lower Kersal in the township of Broughton, near Salford just outside Manchester. According to BaileyBailey, Albert Edward (1950). The Gospel in Hymns. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 112-114. he was one of the tallest men in the kingdom. His privileged background enabled him to obtain an excellent education, including The King's School, Chester, Merchant Taylors' School, London. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a fellow there in 1714, and subsequently travelled abroad and studied medicine at Montpellier in France. Byrom and shorthand , 1741]] Byrom invented a system of shorthand,see:Ward's book of days: February 29th Retrievd on 7 november 2008 and having perfected this, he returned to England in 1716. Some of the inhabitants of Manchester tried to persuade him to set up a medical practice in the town, but he decided that his abilities were insufficient to pursue a medical career and resolved to teach his shorthand system instead. Shortly after coming into his family inheritance in 1740, Byrom patented his "New Universal Shorthand". This system of shorthand was taught officially at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and was used by the clerk in the House of Lords. On June 16, 1742, His Majesty George II secured to John Byrom, M.A., the sole right of publishing for a certain term of years (21) the art and method of shorthand invented by him. His system of shorthand was posthumously published as "The Universal English Shorthand" which, although superseded in the nineteenth Century, marked a significant development in the history of shorthand. It was used by John (1703–1791) and Charles Wesley (1707–1788), founders of Methodism, who recorded their self-examinations in coded diariesJohn Byrom (1692–1763) Retrieved on 7 November 2008 Family life The ancestral home of the Byrom Family is Byrom Hall at Slag Lane in Lowton, (the lane facing the hall is called Byrom Lane). He lived here from time to time, but seems to have largely resided in a town house in Manchester and at Kersal Cell. Byrom had several children, but his favourite was his daughter Dorothy, known as Dolly. In December 1745, after a romp with Dolly, he promised to write her something for Christmas; it was to be written especially for her, and no one else. The delighted Dolly reminded her father of his promise each day as Christmas grew nearer. On Christmas morning, when she ran down to breakfast, she found several presents awaiting her. Among them was an envelope addressed to her in her father's handwriting. It was the first thing she opened, and to her great delight, it proved to be a Christmas carol entitled "Christians awake! Salute the happy morn". The original manuscript is headed "Christmas Day for Dolly", and it was first published in Harrop's Manchester Mercury in 1746. A man of mystery Byrom did not lead an ordinary provincial life. He was a member of the Royal Society while Sir Isaac Newton was president, and moved in some very influential social and intellectual circles in the capital and elsewhere. Modern research has revealed him to be something of a man of mystery. In the first place there is the question of his political views. It was once thought that he was a closet Jacobite, but it is now suggested that he may have acted as a double agent, the 'Queen's Chameleon'. When the Young Pretender briefly occupied Manchester in 1745, he certainly did his best to lie low. His views might be summed up in the verse that he composed, in the form of a toast. :God bless the King! (I mean our faith's defender!) :God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender. :But who Pretender is, and who is King, :God bless us all! That's quite another thing! Byrom died in 1763, and is buried in the Jesus Chapel, Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, England. Writing Although Byrom may be best remembered for his Christmas Carol, he was regarded by his contemporaries as a poet and a literary man. Most of his poems, the best-known of which is My spirit longeth for Thee, were religious in tone. He is also remembered for his epigrams; above all, for his coinage of the phrase Tweedledum and Tweedledee, in an epigram on a dispute about the merits of two composers, George Frederick Handel and Giovanni Bononcini): Some say, that Signor Bononcini, Compared to Handel's a mere ninny; Others aver, to him, that Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange! that such high dispute should be 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee."Epigram on the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini" in The London Journal, 5 June 1725. John Byrom, Wikiquote, Web, Feb. 23, 2016. Critical introduction by William Ernest Henley Byrom's is a figure rather curious than notable, rather amiable than striking. He had many turns and accomplishments, and many holds upon life. He loved learning, for instance, and had scholarship enough to write with point upon scholarly subjects. Again, it is certain that he was a man who could love; for he gave over medicine and the chance of medical honours merely to follow up and win the lady he was wooing to wife. Then, as became Weston’s successful rival, the teacher who had improved upon Weston’s own system, and had Hoadley and Chesterfield for his pupils, he was keenly interested in stenography, and not only lectured on it to his classes (his lectures, by the way, are said to have been full of matter and of wit), but read papers about it before the Royal Society. Also, he was curiously versed in theology and philosophical divinity; he held advanced opinions on the dogmas of predestination and imputed righteousness; he is known for a disciple of William Law, a student of Malebranche and Madame Bourignon, a follower of Jacob Boehmen, for whose sake he learned German, and some of whose discourse he was at the pains of running into English verse. And above all was he addicted to letters and the practice of what he was pleased to think poetry. Add to this, that he was a good and cheerful talker, whose piety was not always pun-proof (‘Hic jacet Doctor Byfield, volatilis olim, tandem fixus’), but who was capable on occasion of right and genuine epigram, and the picture is complete. As revealed in it, Byrom is the very type and incarnation of the ingenious amateur. Verse was his organ; he wrote it more easily and delightedly than prose. From his schooldays onwards, when, as he declares, a line of metre was more to him than a dozen themes, down to the last hours of his life, ‘Him, numbers flowing in a measured time, Him, sweetest grace of English verse, the rhyme, Choice epithet and smooth descriptive line, Conspiring all to finish one design, Smit with delight’— and as that delight usually took on palpable shape, it appears to us expressed in more epistles, songs, pastorals, hymns, essays, satires and epigrams, than nowadays one cares to consider. Nothing came amiss to Byrom in the way of subject. He was interested in everything, and said his say about everything; and that say was always in metre. It was alike in metre that he sang the praises of Joanna Bentley, the Phoebe of his first pastoral, and did battle with Comberbatch in the good cause of Rhyme against Blank Verse; alike in metre that he recorded the gaieties of Tunbridge and the dangers of the Epping stage, the grisly glories of the heroic Figg — ‘so fierce and sedate’ — and the solemn charm of Eastertide and the Nativity. It was in metre that he confuted Middleton, differed from Hervey, emended Horace and Homer, discoursed on the nature of Pentecost, expounded William Law, and explained the Mystical Cobbler. It was in metre that he anatomised beaux and astrologers, made fables and apologies and epigrams, criticised verses and theologies, spoke breaking-up addresses, painted the free and happy workman, and set forth the kindred mysteries of poesy and shorthand. He prattled incessantly, and always in numbers. Not otherwise than in a copy of verses could he define the nature and characteristics of enthusiasm; not otherwise could he submit to the Royal Society his theory that George the Cappadocian had somehow been foisted into the place of Gregory the Roman as England’s patron saint. To respect him it is really necessary to remember that he wrote chiefly for his own amusement and his friends’, and published but a little of the much that he produced. It is evident that he had read Prior, though not to the best advantage; it is evident, too, that he had read not only Pope, but the metaphysical poets as well; and the poem of "Careless Content," here given, is so good an imitation that it has been supposed to be a genuine Elizabethan production. His chief quality is one of ease and fluency; in combination with a certain cheerful briskness of thought and the amiable good sense that is the most striking element in his intellectual composition, it is to be found here and there in all he did. Unhappily for him and for us, it appears to have been as hard for him to correct as it was easy to write. Too often do his verses sound emptily to modern ear — :‘The art of English poetry, I find, :At present, Jenkins, occupies your mind’— too often do they set modern fingers itching to shape and improve them. It follows that he is seen to most advantage when, upon compulsion of his stanza, he is at his briefest and most careful. It is not without reason, therefore, that he is generally known but as the author of the sly and amiable quatrain of benediction alike on King and Pretender. That is the man’s highest point as an artist; it is at once his happiest and most complete utterance; and the body of his verse will be searched in vain for such another proof of merit and accomplishment.from William Ernest Henley, "Critical Introduction: John Byrom (1692–1763)," The English Poets: Selections with critical introductions (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Web, Feb. 23, 2016. Recognition Byrom was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1724. Byrom's papers, though preserved for some time after his death, were mysteriously destroyed in the 19th century. A few surviving items have suggested that he may have belonged to an early proto-masonic society, similar to the Gentleman's Club of Spalding, and pursued occult interests. His library of books and manuscripts was donated to Chetham's Library by his descendant Eleanora Atherton in 1870.Chethams Library: John Byrom Collection Retrieved on 6 march 2008 The Wellington Inn is now a major tourist attraction, and Byrom's birth is commemorated by a plaque in the bar area. Publications Poetry *''Miscellaneous Poems''. Manchester, UK: Joseph Harrop, 1773. *''The Poems of John Byrom'' (edited by Sir Adolphus William Ward). Manchester, UK: printed for the Chetham Society, 1894. Non-fiction *''An Epistle to a Gentleman of the Temple''. London: W. Innys & J. Richardson, 1752. *''The Universal English Short-hand; or, The way of writing English, in the most easy, concise, regular, and beautiful manner''. Manchester, UK: Joseph Harrop, 1767. Journals *''The Private Journal and Literary Remains'' (edited by Sir John Parkinson). (2 volumes), Manchester UK: printed for the Chetham Society, 1857. *''Selection from the Journal and Papers'' (edited by Henri Antoine Talon). London: Rockliff, 1950. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Byrom, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 23, 2016. See also * List of British poets References *The Queen's Chameleon: Life of John Byrom - A Study in Conflicting Loyalties Joy Hancox (Jonathan Cape) *Manchester Streets and Manchester Men T.Swindells (1910) * * Notes External links ;Poems *Byrom in The English Poets: An anthology: "The Nimmers," "Careless Content," "On the Origin of Evil," Epigrams * "A Poetical Version of a Letter from Facob Behmen" * John Byrom at PoemHunter (24 poems) *John Byrom at Poetry Nook (33 poems) ;Books *Google books: Miscellaneous Poems by John Byrom *The John Byrom Collection, Chetham's Library ;About *John Byrom in the Encyclopædia Britannica *[http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/b/y/byrom_j.htm Profile at The Cyber Hymnal] * Original article is at "Byrom, John" Category:1692 births Category:1763 deaths Category:English poets Category:Inventors of writing systems Category:Writers from Manchester Category:Old Merchant Taylors Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:18th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets